Eleven
by Liebling
Summary: “You don’t know what you are,” he said taking a step towards her as though to wipe away a stray tear, “you don’t know where you came from. Or what you’re worth.” (17 year old Sirius has a talk with his cousin Bellatrix. More history revea


Authors Note: I always find it interesting to look into the past, and especially the relationship between Sirius and his cousin Bellatrix. What was it like before she turned to the dark side? I read OotP and I wondered, so here we are. I decided to rationalize it to myself. By the way Sirius and Bellatrix are both seventeen in this one.  
  
Disclaimer: None of its mine. (  
  
~*~  
  
"Right," he said, "and you expect me to actually believe that." He said, perhaps a bit perturbed.  
  
"Yes," she said taking a step towards him a glass of colored liquor in her hand, "I do."  
  
He made eye contact with her for a quick second and then looked away from her sapphire gaze, "That's enough for you for one night," he said taking away the glass of 'whatever it was' from her hand.  
  
"You aren't my Father," she said coldly.  
  
He looked into the drink and said, "Cocktails, at this time of day. My, my, my. And no, I'm not your Father but if you get trashed guess who'll be carrying you home?"  
  
"I'm petite," she said, "it wouldn't be difficult."  
  
"Oh of course not," the young man said sardonically, "that much dead weight."  
  
"That much? I'd mind my mouth if I were you," the girl said as she tossed her black plaits over her shoulder.  
  
"Would you? Nice to know," was the dull response.  
  
"Oh Sirius," she said, "don't bother going all noble on me. It won't work. I'm a Slytherin, and I know its all an act."  
  
"Just because some of us don't lie and cheat doesn't mean its all an act," he said harshly.  
  
"You can't be as good as you're making yourself out to be," she reasoned. "It's inhuman. It isn't normal." The girl took the glass of liquor from her cousin's hand and continued to sip it lightly.  
  
"Maybe it isn't normal for you," he said standing up from the aging bench, "because no one ever loved you."  
  
Her crimson lips broke into a small pout and her mouth gaped slightly. "That was a low blow," she said obviously hurt, "even for you."  
  
"Hardly," he said, "you weren't loved an awful lot, Bella. That wasn't a low blow, that was common knowledge."  
  
"Oh?" She asked pointing her nose up towards the sky, "And I suppose you were, with that insane Mum of yours running around the house? And your Father always off at the Ministry sticking his nose in other people's business-"  
  
"-oh they weren't perfect," he agreed, "-by any standards. But I knew they loved me, and you know so too, you couldn't miss it, Bella. Even someone as cold as you, you know love when you see it. I remember when we were about eleven and I was spending the night at your Father's Manor and you were screaming in your sleep about monsters and no one came to check on you. I had to sit by your bed all night and talk to you, and tell you it was okay, that there were no monsters. That'd you'd be okay, that you were lovely; I had to reassure you, Bella. You were such a little girl then, you still are." He said as he became lost in ruminations for a few seconds, remembering the scared little girl with the wild sapphire eyes.  
  
"Not that I don't appreciate the memories, Sirius," she said bitterly although he picked up on the subtle way that she brought a French-manicured finger up to her eye to brush away a tear. "But it's hardly your business."  
  
"Oh but it was," he said sharply, "that's why you're this way."  
  
"What way?" She inquired, halfway interested.  
  
"You don't know what you are," he said taking a step towards her as though to wipe away a stray tear, "you don't know where you came from. Or what you're worth."  
  
She looked at him, and he thought that the tears would start pouring from her large, saucer eyes. But they didn't, she sucked them back in and took a cool sip from the beverage. She looked defiant as she met his cold gaze. "Maybe I don't," she halfway agreed although her tone was lifeless. "Maybe I don't know anything. Maybe I'm the same scared little girl who asked you if the monsters were gone, and who needed you."  
  
"You're so-" Sirius said and then he paused "-you're so human, Bella. You aren't the only one who needs someone."  
  
And then he stepped forward and enveloped her in a tight hug, she cried softly on the shoulder of his black, velvet coat and he simply held her. Just as he had done when she was eleven.  
  
~*~  
  
La Fin. 


End file.
